If you work with a non-profit group that's in the midst of fundraising and requesting ads from local businesses, I'd love to offer some useful tips from the perspective of the donor.
Most often, when an organization is requesting funds and ads, we in Marketing receive a letter and a few details about the organization and its event, but we're often missing the specific details that make it possible for us to effectively and quickly deliver an ad to the organization. Which means we need to take extra time to find the name of a contact, then find their phone number, then try to get hold of that person and find out needed info, etc, etc.
So, if you have any say in your organization's fundraising/advertising letter, here are some specific details you could request to have included in the letter that would make your sponsors/advertisers VERY happy:
- Contact Person, including name, email, and phone.
- Ad Size Options in exact measurements; your publication may be 8.5 x 11, but someone else's may only be 5.5 x 8.5. If measurements in your solicitation letter are given as simply "Quarter Page" or "Full Page", we won't know what size to make the ad, as each publication size is so different. So, exact measurements are what we need - and it helps the graphic designer to do a nice ad layout.
- Horizontal or Vertical...included in your size options, we need to know which direction the ad will run, as the designer will be doing somewhat different layouts based on this info.
- Delivery Format...do you need a pdf, hard copy, Word document? We can deliver what you need; we just need to know what that is. And, do we send the ad to the Contact Person or to someone else?
- Delivery Deadline, and please don't let it be tomorrow! Two weeks lead time would be great, and even more time is even better.
Including these details in your solicitation letter will put you at the top of the pile of requests organizations receive. Help us to help you!
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